EU member states must decide together what to do with Russian assets that have been frozen under sanctions, according to Lithuanian Interior Minister Agnė Bilotaitė.
Her comment comes after Estonia recently suggested that it might seize the frozen funds and use them for Ukraine’s reconstruction, as the European Commission was not making any progress towards a common decision.
Lithuania’s Interior Ministry said in late December that the country had frozen a total of 87 million euros owned by Russian and Belarusian companies.
“Lithuania and I personally make proposals in all EU formats on internal affairs that there should be decisions on what we do with the frozen assets and there is a proposal of ours, which is being communicated, that there should be a European decision and a unified policy, so that we could take these assets, realise them in some way and use them for the reconstruction of Ukraine,” Bilotaitė told reporters on Friday.
Asked if this means that Lithuania is not planning any national solution, the minister said that “the first thing we do very consistently is to seek joint, coordinated European decisions because they are the most effective”.
Under the sanctions, the Lithuanian Financial Crime Investigation Service (FNTT) imposed sanctions on 16 organisations and individuals as of December 20, freezing the funds of nine Russian companies, and six companies and one individual from Belarus.
The 16 sanctioned companies include Inter RAO Lietuva, Lifosa, EuroChem Logistics International, PhosAgro Baltic, Vydmantai Wind Park, IDS Borjomi Europe, and others.
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